One of the first things couples do post-engagement is go down a Pinterest rabbit hole collecting ideas to make their Wedding vision come to life. We say rabbit hole because that's exactly how Pinterest works. One pin leads to another, to another, to another. Do not get us wrong. WE LOVE PINTEREST! It is perfect for collecting ideas and find what colors, textures, designs, locations etc all resonate with you for you Wedding. From the ceremony to tablescapes, favors and thank you notes, you can find ideas for everything! It's also a great tool to collect you ideas to share with your florist, planner and photographer. 

In our line of work, we have become very well-versed in Pinterest and love working with clients on putting together their perfect Wedding Pinterest Board. Here are some tips for how to keep your thoughts organized and how to avoid getting overwhelmed with Pinterest. 

Pinterest recently added the opportunity to add sections to your Pinterest board. This has been extremely helpful and avoids the need to create 15 different boards for your Wedding. Before you start pinning, we recommend creating a board and setting up sections:

• Vibe - Use this section to pin photos of overall atmosphere photos. Room decor, fun photo ops you like, words to describe it, color palettes, themes, etc. 
• Ceremony - Use this section to pin photos of ceremony decor ideas, setup ideas, vow ideas, traditions etc. 
• Cocktail Hour - Use this section to pin photos for all the little details that people will discover at cocktail hour! Escort cards, gift table, photos, specialty cocktails etc. 
• Tablescape - Use this section to pin photos of centerpieces, table layouts, menu cards, table numbers etc that you like!
• Stationary - Use this section to pin photos of invitations, save the dates, thank you cards, and pieces you'll be sending to your guests. 
• Personal Ideas - Use this section to pin photos of unique details that reflect you and your fiance. Tradition ideas, special touches, photos you want to have together, etc. 
• Bridal Party - Use this section to pin photos of bridal party attire. Bridesmaid dresses, suits, shoes, etc - also photo ideas you like of everyone together

TIP: You'll notice we didn't create a flowers section. We recommend starting with pinning flowers specifically for tables, ceremony and personal use and then you can evaluate the shapes and display ideas you like and want to apply. Colors and specific flowers can be applied to almost anything - but narrowing down how you want to use them is key! 

The Wedding Planning process ebbs and flows. So many things can affect what make sense for your Wedding. Venue, vendors, date, location etc all can affect whether that setup you're seeing on Pinterest can come to life. When you're pinning, we encourage you to get excited about the things you see, but keep an open mind and focus on different trends and ideas you like as opposed to specific pictures. The truth is, it's your Wedding and you want to put your interpretation and personal style on an idea, not completely replicate something already done. 

Try searching for Pinterest accounts specifically in your area (or where you are going to get married) so you can see local vendors are doing. Why fall in love with a venue on the opposite coast as you if you are not going to have a destination Wedding? 

Make the board collaborative! Invite your friends and family to also share ideas that they find that may be helpful to you!

You don't need to just find pins through Pinterest. Check out Instagram pages, Wedding Blogs, even vendor websites to find ideas you like! When you start the planning process, using Pinterest to host all your ideas for venues and vendors can help you remember what you liked about each of them from their websites. 
TIP: Adding the Pinterest Widget to your web browsers makes it really easy to add pins of things you find while browsing the internet. 

Creating the menu for you Wedding day can be an overwhelming process. The food at Wedding can certainly make or break it, but one thing we have learned in the Wedding biz…guests love options! Rather than going the traditional plated meal route, work with your caterer to opt for interactive food stations for your big day. We love stations for so many reasons. Not only are the options endless and so fun to come up with, but it is a great way to get your guests up and entertained throughout the night. Consider it a "choose your own adventure!" Interactive food stations are a great way to make your Wedding stand out and keep your guests raving about your Wedding for months to come! Here are some of our favorite ideas on trend right now:

Choose a fun dish, local to the destination of your Wedding or to where you are from! This is a great way to take a foundational piece of your Wedding puzzle and making it fun and personal. It also is a great way to give guests a taste of the local flavor if they are coming in from out of town for your Wedding.

​This trend is not going anywhere any time soon and the ideas are endless. Take your food to the next level by offering it with a fun drink pairing! This will be a hit with your guests and leads to so many fun photo ops. 

Food trucks at Weddings has become a huge trend in the industry! It’s a great budget friendly way to feed your guests and the options are endless. You can have food trucks cater your entire wedding or opt for a dessert truck for a late-night surprise to your guests. Not to mention the food truck photos are so sweet!

Interactive stations are not perfect only for food, but drinks too! Let your guests customize their beverage to their liking by offering a unique drink station. From build your own margaritas, bloody mary stations and even alcohol infused sno cones, these all offer another great form of entertainment and an activity for your guests. 

​For a sweet end of the night treat for your guests offer a Take it To Go station with sweets and treats the guests can pack up to enjoy later. These can also serve as your wedding favors and can help keep your guests entertained even as they walk out the door. We love edible wedding favors and we think your guests will too!

One of our favorite stations to incorporate lately has been a Bride and Groom favorite snacks station. This is something that can be kept open from cocktail hour through goodbyes and allows a place for guests to always grab something to eat while learning something about the Bride and Groom. It's also one of our favorites because it doesn't have to make sense. The food doesn't need to pair together because it's supposed to be random - it's all your favorite things!

Dreaming of a rustic and charming barn wedding for your special day? One of our local favorites is the Barn at Bradstreet Farm in Rowley, MA! Established in 1635, the Barn at Bradstreet Farm is the second oldest operational farm in the U.S and was in the Bradstreet family until 2007 when it underwent a 3 year renovation…and it is STUNNING! Not only is it a perfect venue for all your barn wedding dreams, but Tiffany and her team at Bradstreet Farm are incredible! We were lucky enough to work with them in 2019 and are looking forward to another wedding with them later in 2020.

Not only does the Barn at Bradstreet Farm offer a beautifully renovated barn for your reception (including heat and A/C), but also multiple picturesque spots for photos, a private cottage for you and your bridal party to get ready in, a sprawling outdoor space for ceremonies and cocktail hours with plenty of room for a tent, fire pits with seating and even baby goats! Extra bonus! The Barn at Bradstreet Farm uses fresh produce and flowers grown on the premise for their catering and wedding florals.

If all of this wasn't already great, add live farm animals, sunsets and rustic furniture included with your rental! Some more favorite perks below:

Photos by Pictus Photography

As planners, we want to help our clients prepare for every possible scenario. The past couple weeks with COVID-19 have been overwhelming and challenged us with a scenario we could have never prepared for. With each day bringing new information and leaving a lot of uncertainty for the upcoming Wedding season, we have been navigating each situation with our clients uniquely to make the best decision for them. We know there are a lot of brides out there who do not have a Wedding Planner, so we wanted to share our process for navigating our couples through this difficult time and offer some tips to hopefully bring a little stress relief. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions!

Yep - I know you're skipping over this because everything is telling you to do this. If one more person tells you it will be okay you probably want to hit them over the head. You are fully entitled to all the emotions you are going through and let yourself feel them. It's an overwhelming situation and you are allowed to feel overwhelmed. Take a deep breath, look at your fiance, and take it as another challenge you will overcome together. 

The million dollar question. We cannot answer this for you, but we can give you some things to consider:

• Is there a government mandate affecting your Wedding?
  • The decision may be out of your hands anyway! If there is a recommendation from the government to cancel/postpone events of a certain number of people during a certain amount of time, please abide by this. Waiting until the last minute may end you up with a cancellation and more stress.
• Where are your guests traveling from?
  • Do you have a lot of international guests? It mostly likely will be a longer period of time before they will be able to travel to the US. If it's important to you that they be there, definitely consider postponing. 
• Is it worth the peace of mind?
  • If you feel you are going to wake up everyday with a knot in your stomach thinking about if you should postpone your Wedding, postpone it. The peace of mind will be worth it. Silver lining? The further from this situation we are, the more guests will be focused on you on your Wedding day and not distracted by what's going on in the news. 

If you have already sent out invitations, evaluate the best way to communicate the new date to your guests. The easiest thing for you to manage would certainly be sending everyone an email and asking them to submit a new RSVP through your Wedding website. Another method that's a little more formal and provides a keepsake is sending a postcard to everyone with the new date. If they have a change to their RSVP tell them to contact you. No need to re-print your entire stationary set unless you want an updated one as a keepsake. 

So much time and energy (and fun) goes into planning your Wedding! The flowers, the food, the music are all important pieces that take up your time and attention. Just as important but often overlooked until the last minute are the plans for your Wedding Day prep. Ensuring you have a location with enough time to get your hair and makeup done, what you're going to eat, where you need to pack up your belongings and who is taking them to the next place. Ensuring you have a seamless start to your day will ease your stress and send you off nicely into the rest of your day. These are all little details we work through with our couples, but in the chance you are working on your own, here are our top tips to ensure it's as smooth as possible!

One thing we see often, is that people forget about those pesky check-in times at hotels. Just because you have a Suite booked for your Wedding night, does not always mean you get access to it before before the regular check-in time. Reserve it the night before or find someone else who will have the room available first thing in the morning so you can kick-off your day in one place. 

When nerves take over this time of the day, leaning in on alcohol is very common. The champagne is flowing, groomsmen are pouring shots and toasting to your day, but please, oh please, limit the liquor. We try to enforce a no liquor (except one celebratory shot) for the Wedding parties we work with. Drink all the Beer and Wine you want, but liquor can start to flow a little too quickly, and while often combined with empty stomachs, does not end well. You will have the opportunity to drink as much as you want once that Ceremony is over, so let's just make sure everyone makes it there in one piece. 

The Wedding prep part of the day can be overwhelming. Your emotions are clouding your ability to focus on what you need and when, so take some time to think about what you will want at the Reception. We recommend keeping the list short, for example lipstick, a second pair of shoes and your phone. You're going to be so busy floating around the room and enjoying the night, you don't need a full purse. Part of this plan should also be who is going to be responsible for these items. Another great task for a member of the Wedding Party or family member who will be with you most of the day. 
**If you are not getting ready in someone's hotel room where you can leave all your getting ready items, a plan of where to pack up these items and drop off is also helpful (for example someone's car or hotel room.)

Be sure to make a plan for what you are going to eat before the Wedding. You may be nervous and think you won't want to eat, but it's important to have food available and that your Wedding Party also eats. It's a long day involving drinking, dancing and nerves, and doing all of that on an empty stomach is not good for anyone. If you aren't staying somewhere you can order food, this is a great thing to delegate to someone in your party who wants to help! 

If you don't have a Day-of Wedding Coordinator who can be your point of contact for any vendor questions, pick someone in your Wedding party who can be the their point of contact for questions. If you don't do that, please oh please, pass off your phone to someone else. Not only will you be preoccupied getting ready, taking photos, etc (your dress doesn't have pockets and you will not see your phone for hours), but you do not need to be thinking about these details and letting them distract you from what you should be focused on - taking in every moment of your Wedding Day! This is not the day to try to be a Superhero - it's your day to be a Prince/Princess!

LeighAnn and Nate's September Wedding gave us all the feels of a romantic night in the city. Hosted at Marliave in their window-filled dining room overlooking the city, they danced the night away surrounded by their closest friends and family. We were SO excited to finally get to see their highlight film from Salt + Pine Films. LeighAnn and Nate had the most epic photo session through the city with AllieDot Photos and with Salt + Pine in tow, they were able to capture every moment. Truly living a romantic date night in the city fantasy. Watch this and you'll find yourself planning a night in the city with your partner ASAP!